The Government announced in the Queen’s Speech that it is going to deliver on its manifesto commitment to repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. The Labour Party manifesto also promised to repeal the Act on the grounds that it had stifled democracy and propped up weak governments. Depending on your point of view, this is either a power grab by the prime minister to secure partisan advantage or a welcome step to get rid of a badly designed constitutional anomaly, explains Wyn Grant, Professor Emeritus in Warwick's PAIS and expert on British Politics.

The UK government's Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has today announced a new system for people seeking asylum in Britain. Read the story here on BBC News.

Professor Dallal Stevens, an expert on asylum from the School of Law at the University of Warwick, comments:

"Home Secretary, Priti Patel, clearly has no understanding of UK asylum law and policy, or its history. If she did, she would realise that much of what she is proposing is either (a) inaccurate, (b) unrealistic, (c) existed previously or (d) unlikely to achieve her goals."

Speaking this morning with Phil Upton of BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, Dr McCrisken, Associate Professor, US Politics and International Studies, said:

"President Trump’s legacy is being written right now. He’s ending his presidency under such dark clouds - he’s been impeached, there’s going to be a trial in the Senate that could convict him and prevent him from becoming a candidate again for the Presidency, so he’s leaving with lots of controversy – which of course is something that he’s always cultivated to a large extent, he wants to make everything about him."

What is the protocol if the leader of the free world is taken ill? With the UK Prime Minister and members of his team testing positive for COVID-19 last week, nothing can be ruled out. PPL Co-Director Dr Trevor McCrisken from Warwick’s Department of Politics and International Studies looks at what could happen.

Dr Georg Löfflmann from the Department of Politics and International Studies comments:-

"Evolution has given us two systems of thought, ‘system 1’, which is fast, instinctive and emotional, and ‘system 2, which is slower, more deliberative and logical. Because of ‘cognitive bias’, embedded in human biology, emotions and intuition can override a rational assessment of objective fact."